


doesn't it feel like our time is running out?

by invertedrainbow



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M, basically childhood friends au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-13
Updated: 2013-04-13
Packaged: 2017-12-08 09:11:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/759640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invertedrainbow/pseuds/invertedrainbow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael first meets Gavin when he is six.</p>
            </blockquote>





	doesn't it feel like our time is running out?

Michael first meets Gavin when he is six.

He wonders why he talks funny, at first. But he asserts that it sounds “lovely”, as his mom would say. His mom is lovely too. She likes saying nice things about others and she suppresses herself from saying bad things, if possible.

“Michael, saying bad words is wrong,” she tells him, and he isn’t sure what bad words are. Please, thank you, I’m sorry, etc., these are good words. Magic words even. Good magic words that would bring him good things, according to her. Of course he believes her wholeheartedly, saying thank you when he is given goodies, sorry when he breaks one of her mom’s angel figurines when he plays pretend with his brother, or please when he asks someone to pass the mashed potatoes.

He sounds funny, but it sounds mellifluous as well, so he figures that it sounds lovely. He bets his mom would agree.

He decides to tell him.

The other boy is sitting alone on a swing in the middle of a chilly morning, the cold bearable at some point, but not without a scarf and gloves. He notices that the other boy has none of these, and he frowns disapprovingly.

“Hello,” Michael says, because this is the proper way to call so someone’s attention. The boy stares at him for a long while, and with that, Michael is given enough time to investigate the scene. The boy is shivering cold, and his nose is already red. His hands are white because of the tightness of his grip. He looks frightened.

He sniffs a couple of times before answering. “Hi.”

“Are you okay? You look cold.”

“Um, yeah. I’m okay. Thanks for asking,” He tells him, and Michael’s frowns deeper. The boy is obviously not okay, and he does a bad job of lying about it.

“I’m Michael,” he introduces, and the boy smiles, somewhat. “I live three blocks from here, and I know everyone in the area. Did you just move here?”

“More of visiting, actually. I’m not from around here,” he responds, trying to hide the smile that is forming on his lips. “I’m Gavin, by the way.”

Michael thinks that Gavin is a weird name, but he doesn’t say that out loud.

“Your voice sounds funny,” he tells him finally, and to his surprise, Gavin laughed. “What’s so funny?”

“I actually find your voice funny too.”

“You do?”

“Yeah,” Gavin tries to stop himself from giggling, and the only thing that stops him is a small fit of coughing, and Michael worries that he might be sick.

“Can I sit here?” He gestures to the empty swing and Gavin nods, almost a little too eagerly. Before Michael sits, he gives his green scarf to Gavin, to which the boy thanks with a genuine smile. He lets the warmth engulf his neck and now he feels toasty as ever. Michael watches him with a steady eye. “Are you still cold?”

“Nope!” Gavin replies, and they both swing alternately.

“How long are you gonna stay here?”

“Probably two weeks tops; I’m not quite sure what my folks have in store.”

“You have a store?”

“I meant that figuratively, Mi-cool,” Gavin giggles again, and Michael decides he likes the way Gavin calls him, so he smiles really widely. He doesn’t know what “figuratively” means either, so he imagines Gavin is very smart.

“Can we play tomorrow?” Michael mumbles, his feet skidding through the ground to stop him from swinging, the other boy doing the same.

“That’s top!” Gavin exclaims happily, and Michael laughs so hard, his cheeks ache. “What’s so funny, Michael?”

“You are,” he answers, and Gavin laughs with him.

 

——

 

Two weeks come and go, and he learns more about Gavin than ever.

For some reason, Gavin hates soggy bread.

He has Gavin over for snacks one afternoon, and Michael accidentally spills his water all over his sandwich. Gavin’s eyes widens and he excuses himself politely before bolting out the door, lurching violently. Michael follows him outside, confused as heck. Gavin explains as so, and Michael grins wickedly. Gavin looks at him with horror.

Gavin likes taking pictures and shooting videos. He has his handy Polaroid camera and a trusty video camera that took hours and hours of their adventures in the park. He would often take pictures of Michael and show him, but never let him keep one. He would also, so often, do front-flips that Michael would film, and often times he would fail at it, but Michael’s laughter made it seem to hurt less, and Gavin finds himself laughing along.

Gavin likes video games as much as Michael, and he often lets Michael win. Michael knows about it but doesn’t stop him. Sometimes though, Gavin bugs him so much that it refrains him from winning, which angers Michael. He would hit Gavin on the arm and the Brit would just laugh cheerfully.

At those two weeks, he considers Gavin his best friend, and he hopes Gavin feels the same way.

 

——

 

The day before Gavin leaves, Michael meets with him on the swing where they often talk. He couldn’t hide the sadness in his eyes even if he attempts to smile, and Gavin knows him that much to tell that he was sad.

“Here,” Gavin passes to him the scarf he lent him over two weeks, but Michael shakes his head.

“Take it. I asked my Mom if England was cold. She said it was. You need it more than I do.”

“Thanks,” he mumbles, putting on the scarf again.

Michael hates the prolonged silence, so he pulls Gavin up so they could seize their last day together. They go over to Michael’s to do all Gavin’s favorite things to do. Gavin takes pictures of Michael’s family, and Michael’s room, and Michael. More of Michael.

Gavin falls asleep for a bit, and Michael decides to borrow Gavin’s video cam for a while. Inserting his own empty tape, he gives a lengthy speech about friendship and how they should keep in touch. That he would miss Gavin’s pranks and wittiness and he is crying because Gavin’s leaving too soon and he wants to play some more. He stops crying after some while and removes the tape, feeling silly for crying, to which he decides not to give the tape anymore. He hides the tape in his treasure chest and goes back to wake Gavin up.

Gavin takes a final picture of the two of them and gives it to Michael, who promised to keep it safe.

They walk back to the park and swing for a while, and when it’s dark and the sky is tainted purple and orange, Michael stands up. And when Gavin does the same, he hugs Gavin so tight, squeezing the tears left from earlier. He gives Gavin a small kiss on the cheek, and runs away. He hopes they can keep in touch, until he realizes he never gave the speech because he never gave the tape.

He cries himself to sleep that night and tries to forget about the best two weeks of his life, and he succeeds.

  

——

 

He meets him again 18 years later, in a workplace called Rooster Teeth, and their boss Burnie Burns introduces them as if they are meeting for the first time but they aren’t, Michael knows for sure. Gavin seems to have totally forgotten about him, which leaves a pang on Michael’s gut for the whole day.

He spends most of his time for the next week trying to know if this is his Gavin.

The video games part is a complete check because they are working for the same subgroup called Achievement Hunter, which specializes video games. Not to mention the whole pissing everyone off while playing is something

The video part is a check too, because he spends most of his time goofing around while videotaping everything, which they use a lot in behind the scenes and RT Life.

Then it hit him. There is one trait Gavin is known for, and Michael feels stupid for not thinking about it sooner.

On the staff lounge, Michael grabs a slice of bread and runs it over flowing water, to which he runs to the Achievement Hunter office and slams it to Gavin’s table.

Gavin looks up at him, horrified. And one point he looks like he understands completely what is happening, and the others stare at the two in complete confusion. Gavin bolts out the door and makes a horrible sound, to which Michael responds with a happy guffaw and slight tears. The rest of the Achievement Hunter follow Gavin outside, still confused.

“Mi-cool?” He finally says, and Michael’s smile is unbreakable.

“Gavin,” Michael beams. The others still look like they are in the dark, so Gavin stands up and drapes his arm around Michael’s shoulder. “Childhood friends, fucktards.”

“Of course, I am the only one who finds wet bread revolting in the whole world,” Gavin explains, and Michael can’t stop smiling. The familiarity of this warmth reminds him of everything he forced to forget all those years, and at some point, he is lost in those memories. Gavin pulls him back as soon, and they get into a long conversation as to what happened, trying to fill the lost 18 years.

They are assigned to close the office, and before they go home to their respective homes, they decide to grab some drinks before everything else.

“Beer over Halo?” Michael suggests as he locked the Rooster Teeth office. “We can go to my place.”

Gavin grabs a scarf from his bag, wrapping it around his neck. Michael stares at the whole endeavor, and realizes that it was his old scarf, well-conditioned and still intact.

“I never really understood, you know?” Gavin tells him as they walked, rubbing his hands together. “Why you ran off then.”

“One thing you never knew about me is that I suck at goodbyes,” Michael says nonchalantly, waving it off as nothing. “I may have kept the picture you took.”

“From the Polaroid?”

“From the fucking Polaroid.”

 

——

 

Michael leaves Gavin in the living room for a while to see if he was able to pack the treasure chest when he moved to an apartment of his own. Checking under his bed, he tries to reach for the boxes and pulls them one by one, until he manages to reach a box that says “TREAZURE CHEST! MICHAEL’S PROPERTY DON’T TOUCH!!!!!!”. He blows off the dust forming on the lid and pulls it off, seeing the contents of the box.

The picture is still there, goofy Gavin making a peace sign at the top of Michael’s head, and Michael grinning so wide with his curls dangerously long over his beanie. He also notices the tape he used to record his last message, and he picks it up and sighs.

There is a knock on the doorway, and there is Gavin, beer bottles in hand. He passes one to Michael.

Michael thinks it’s time to give him the message, so he gives the tape.

“Woah! This is the same tape I used to use on my old camcorder!” The Brit handles the tape with much care, as if it was a prized possession. “What’s in this?”

“It’s a damn surprise.”

Gavin stares at the tape for a few more seconds before tucking it in his pocket.

  

——

 

 The whole thing is forgotten for 3 days. 

 

——

 

“I get it now!”

“Gavin, I swear to God if this is another prank of yours I’m gonna bash your head in like a bitch.”

“You ran off because you knew you made the message! But you weren’t able to give it, and when you realized that, I was already gone!”

Michael stares at the ceiling long enough for his consciousness to be regained. He closes his eyes and thinks that it’s way too early for this; it’s goddamned 5 in the morning and he was up all night playing Dead Space, editing it for his private Youtube channel. He is too tired to be embarrassed anymore.

“Mi-cool?”

Michael’s consciousness is losing drastically, anyway. “I may have had a crush on you back then, Gavin.”

Gavin stays silent for a long while, and when he is about to respond, he hears Michael’s soft snores and he laughs silently. He ends the call then, before saying, “I may have, too.”

 

——

 

Michael wakes up with a text message on his screen.

_You’re my boy, Michael._

**Author's Note:**

> my ao3 account feels lonely so i figured i should put something here, at least
> 
> i really tried guys ;w;


End file.
